New story up at OWW

My latest story, “The Comfort of Stone” has been posted to the Online Writing Workshop. It’s the first new story I’ve written in awhile so I’m afraid I may be rusty…

How they could jive

Random quote of the day:


“That’s the secret of entertaining. Make your guests feel welcome and at home. If you do that honestly, the rest will take care of itself.

—Barbara Hall, Northern Exposure









( Illustrated version. )

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Wow, seemed like much longer

I always put a date in the filename when I start a new draft of a novel as a convenient reference for when I started, then tend to gloss over them and ignore them as irrelevant.  I just looked at the date on the file for the first draft of Venus in Transit: June 26, 2009.  That means I spent just about a year on the damned thing.  I would have sworn I was at least at the year and a half mark.  It seemed interminable.  It was a longer time span than other recent novels have taken to produce a first draft, and it was interminable, but dang.  I’m surprised.

Oh, and I was able to leave the draft alone for one whole day in order to fix up and post a short story I wrote about a month ago.  I woke up this morning itching to do the read-through on Venus.

I apparently have my writing Jones back.

Talk to me again when I’m halfway through the read-through.  My attitude may have altered somewhat.